Pushing Cool: Big Tobacco, Racial Marketing, and the Untold Story of the Menthol Cigarette

The disproportionate Black deaths and cries of "I can't breathe" are connected to a post-1960s history of race and exploitation. In Pushing Cool, Keith Wailoo reveals the hidden persuaders who shaped menthol buying habits and racial markets, including tobacco marketers, consultants, psychologists, and social scientists, as well as Black lawmakers and civic groups like the NAACP. Ten years ago, Congress banned flavored cigarettes as criminal enticements to encourage youth smoking, but menthol cigarettes were not banned. Wailoo exposes why they were not and how they remain so popular with Black smokers.

Format: Hardback
Length: 392 pages
Publication date: 02 November 2021
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press

Police have used a fatal chokehold on Eric Garner for selling cigarettes on a New York City street corner. George Floyd was killed by police outside a store in Minneapolis known as "the best place to buy menthols." Black smokers overwhelmingly prefer menthol brands such as Kool, Salem, and Newport. All of this is no coincidence. The disproportionate Black deaths and cries of "I can't breathe" that ring out in our era are intimately connected to a post-1960s history of race and exploitation. In Pushing Cool, Keith Wailoo tells the intricate and poignant story of menthol cigarettes for the first time. He pulls back the curtain to reveal the hidden persuaders who shaped menthol buying habits and racial markets across America: the world of tobacco marketers, consultants, psychologists, and social scientists, as well as Black lawmakers and civic groups like the NAACP. Today, most Black smokers buy menthols, and calls to prohibit their circulation hinge on a history of the industry's targeted racial marketing. Ten years ago, when Congress banned flavored cigarettes as criminal enticements to encourage youth smoking, menthol cigarettes were also slated to be banned. Through a detailed study of internal tobacco industry documents, Wailoo exposes why they weren't and how they remain so popular with Black smokers. Spanning a century, Pushing Cool reveals how the twin deceptions of health and Black affinity for menthol were crafted—and how the industry's disturbingly powerful narrative has endured to this day.

Weight: 686g
Dimension: 162 x 237 x 30 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780226794136